Saudi Arabia Imprisons Tribesmen for Rejecting Displacement in NEOM Project

The area is part of the NEOM megacity project, a $500 billion futuristic development backed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Two members of the Howeitat, a tribe in Saudi Arabia forcibly displaced and have received lengthy sentences over their protests against the project, a UK-based rights group has reported.

Abdulilah al-Howeiti and his relative, Abdullah Dukhail al-Howeiti, were both handed a 50-year prison term and 50-year travel ban for supporting their family's refusal to be forcibly evicted from their homes in the Tabuk province of northwestern Saudi Arabia, according to Alqst.

The rulings in their cases, made by the Specialised Criminal Court of Appeal in August, come among a raft of similarly long sentences handed down by Saudi courts this summer.

According to the tribe's spokesperson, Saleh al-Faraj, security forces have raided the homes of several other Huwaitat tribe members and arrested them for refusing to sign away their property rights. The arrested individuals have been transferred to a detention center in the city of Ha'il, around 300 km south of Tabuk.

In a statement to Middle East Eye, al-Faraj said that "the Saudi regime has not provided any compensation for our land, which has been passed down through generations." He added that "the government wants to displace us from our homes without any clear reason or justification."

The NEOM project has been controversial from its inception due to its location on land traditionally inhabited by the Huwaitat and other tribes. Despite the government's assurances that the project will bring economic benefits to the region, the Huwaitat and other tribes have expressed concern about the environmental impact of the development and the potential loss of their ancestral lands.

Amnesty International has called for the immediate release of the detained Huwaitat tribesmen and for the Saudi Arabian authorities to respect the rights of the region's indigenous peoples.

Saudi special forces, sometimes with 40 vehicles, were dispatched to the region in March 2020 to raid the homes of those who were resisting eviction and to intimidate them, according to the report.

In a confrontation, Saudi forces detained 20 residents who had come to defend a kidnapped child, reads the report, adding that the minor was abducted by the secret police after writing “We will not be moved” on walls.

According to the rights group, residents were offered as little as 17,000 riyals in compensation despite Saudi authorities’ claim of offering 620,000 riyals. Meanwhile, authorities have refused to resettle the resident in proximity to their former homes. The low compensation has forced residents to buy homes in poorer neighborhoods in the Tabuk province.

In a statement, the human rights organization said that "the authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all those detained solely for peacefully opposing their forced eviction and ensure that the Huwaitat and other communities are consulted and provide their free, prior and informed consent before any decisions that would affect their rights and livelihoods are taken."

The expropriations of homes contravene the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, both of which Saudi Arabia has ratified.